{"id":9650,"date":"2022-11-25T12:56:34","date_gmt":"2022-11-25T12:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/?p=9650"},"modified":"2023-05-20T10:01:53","modified_gmt":"2023-05-20T10:01:53","slug":"historic-ruling-serbias-state-energy-supplier-must-slash-toxic-plant-emissions-nationwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/historic-ruling-serbias-state-energy-supplier-must-slash-toxic-plant-emissions-nationwide\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic ruling: Serbia\u2019s state energy supplier must slash toxic plant emissions nationwide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Higher Court in Belgrade <strong>has ruled in favor of Renewables and Environmental Regulatory Institute (RERI) <\/strong>and ordered Serbia\u2019s state-owned energy company, Public Electricity Company of Serbia (EPS), to reduce illegal levels of sulfur dioxide emissions from its thermal power plants because of their threat to human health and the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is the first time that EPS\u2019 activities have been successfully challenged in the courts. This case was about protecting people\u2019s health, but also about making sure that those in charge of upholding environmental protection laws are held to account\u201d, says <strong>lawyer and chairman of the RERI Board Jovan Raji\u0107<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lawsuit filed by RERI to the Higher Court in Belgrade is the first of its kind and is based on a law that was adopted almost 50 years ago. The judgment represents a legal precedent that significantly improves judicial practice in Serbia when it comes to the protection of public interest, the health of citizens and environmental protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The judgment of the Court was largely based on the expert analysis by professor doctor Dragana Jovanovi\u0107, a well-respected pulmonologist. Her analysis showed that prolonged exposure to illegal levels of SO<sub>2<\/sub> emissions can lead to a wide range of consequences for human health, such as difficulties breathing, and the development of long-term asthma and bronchitis. More serious health consequences include\u00a0 increased mortality from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cThis historic ruling finally recognizes Serbians\u2019 rights to a healthy environment and protects people whose health has suffered for years from EPS\u2019 disregard for the law\u201d, <\/em><strong>says RERI\u2019s Program Director Mirko Popovi\u0107.<\/strong><em>\u201c<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>We expect EPS to comply with the judgment and implement the necessary measures in order to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions to within the legal limits, so that Serbians can finally live and breathe in a healthy environment\u201d, <\/em>adds <strong>Popovi\u0107.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a party to the Energy Community Treaty, Serbia is legally obliged to reduce emissions of SO2, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) in accordance with the National Emission Reduction Plan (NERP) as of January 2018. However, during 2018 and 2019, just two out of ten of EPS\u2019 thermal power plants emitted six times higher amounts of SO<sub>2<\/sub> than allowed. These plants continued to emit illegal levels of SO<sub>2<\/sub> in subsequent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The legal action, launched by RERI in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reri.org.rs\/en\/serbias-public-electricity-company-faces-court-challenge-for-breaching-toxic-emissions-limits\/\">2021, <\/a>follows several requests to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, demanding that it inspect illegal levels of sulfur dioxide (SO<sub>2<\/sub>) emitted from EPS\u2019 thermal power plants. However, the Ministry determined that there was no legal ground to act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In its ruling, the Court clearly expressed that lawsuit against EPS was the only remaining legal avenue to prevent further harm to people\u2019s health and the environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Notes to editors:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lawsuit was developed in partnership with the environmental legal\norganization ClientEarth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Serbia\u2019s obligation to apply NERP, and Public\nElectricity Company\u2019s to comply with the annual emissions ceilings for sulfur\ndioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, came into effect on 01 January\n2018, in accordance with the decision of the Ministerial Council of the Energy\nCommunity on the implementation of the Large Combustion Plants Directive of the\nEU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NERP covers large combustion plants (thermal\npower plants) that cannot comply with the emission limit values from the EU\nDirective on large combustion plants. Alternatively, Serbia shall apply NERP as\nan instrument to reduce harmful emissions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Higher Court in Belgrade has ruled in favor of Renewables and Environmental Regulatory Institute (RERI) and ordered Serbia\u2019s state-owned\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9651,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1641,1248,1250,936,1545,1456],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9650"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9650"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11481,"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9650\/revisions\/11481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}